Making the Ideal Real The Power of Rituals With Dr. Michael Norton
Apr 3, 2024
Dr. Michael Norton, a Harvard Business School professor and author of The Ritual Effect, explores the surprising power of rituals. He contrasts habits with rituals, emphasizing how the latter imbue mundane actions with meaning. Michael discusses how small couple rituals, like clinking forks, enhance relationships, while team-created rituals foster cohesion. He also warns against top-down rituals that can backfire. Finally, he encourages listeners to observe their own rituals and experiment to discover what best supports their emotional well-being.
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Emotional Diversity Is Healthy
- A richly varied emotional life, including sadness, makes for a better life than constant happiness.
- Michael Norton calls emotional diversity essential for learning and growth.
Rituals Add Meaning Beyond Habits
- Perfectly optimized habits can make you healthy but may produce a dull life.
- Norton suggests rituals as a way to inject meaning and emotional variety into routine.
Professor's Teaching Prep Ritual
- Michael Norton discovered his pre-class pacing, yellow lined paper, and black binder ritual only after studying rituals.
- He realized the ritual made him feel ready and had repeated it for years without noticing.
